Getting to grips with Online Reputation Management

As companies, governments and individuals suffer online through poor customer service and product quality, social marketing campaigns running amok or employees saying and doing things they should not on Facebook, Online Reputation Management (‘ORM’) is attracting a lot of digital ink.

Yet the principles and practices of ORM remain poorly defined.

Most organisations, big and small, that I talk to believe it is about cleaning up the top 20 search engine results when they’re under the harsh glare of an issue or crisis.

Given that reputations are won, lost and recovered well beyond the confines of Google or Baidu, companies must take a broader and deeper view of ORM. Importantly, it should be aligned it with their corporate and/or brand reputation strategy.